The WHOers

WTF!?

We spend half our time spewing BS about Doctor Who in real life (and Second Life) anyway, so why not just record it and put it on a podcast for a laugh? Plus, this blog makes a great place to dump the art, videos, RPG and action figure news we're obsessed about.

There are others who might be more serious, more obsessed, more canonical, but what can we bring to the DW podcast milieu? - we asked ourselves. Chaos, bad language, tequila, and direct piss-taking seemed more our bag, and goodness knows the world needs more of that.

And so with that, WARNING: serious disrespect, explicit language, and Doctor Who fanaticism enclosed.

Some cool. Some decidedly average. We still don't have a plain clothes Rory, but at least we're getting a River Song in the Panopticon Chair Set. If you want our 2 cents, we'll be buying Idris and sod the rest. Uncle will be the collectable one in the future, cos no on will buy him, and we vote Silents as most likely to be seen in a child's colonic x-ray in the near future. Go consume.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

It's a been a while in the making, and it's a big one (ooo, er, Mrs.), but this is our Elizabeth Sladen tribute episode with contributions from Dirty WHOers listeners and assorted Who peeps. This ones' from the heart.

Who-Ray describes itself as a gifts and memorabilia shop, but what it actually is is a little treasure. Nestled on a side street just off Stockton High Street (widest in Europe, you know), it caters to both the hippy chick (incense, candles, crafts and jewellery) and the geek (comics, toys, badges and books, mostly but not exclusively Doctor Who). Run by Brian and Martin, it’s a friendly place that found itself that Saturday very much the centre of attention. It felt like the whole of Stockton had turned out to celebrate in the sunshine and apparently by day’s end, approximately 1500 people had indeed done so.

The staff and volunteers were a little overwhelmed by the turn-out (having only been expecting a hundred or so), but coped superbly wrangling Daleks and members of the public backwards and forwards between the main shop and some borrowed vacant units over the road. First off was a fan-film, which was pretty entertaining from what I could hear (being short and at the back, I couldn’t see the telly). Then Graeme Harper was introduced, only to be rudely interrupted by the Daleks making their presence felt by bursting through a screen of wall-paper, to the great surprise of those assembled.

Not only was Dalek Bruce there, but also Dalek Mack and a new addition to the clan, Dalek Nation (who was only 3 days old, bless him). The children were all very keen to have their photos taken with the Daleks, although some were a little spooked when they started talking. Being Northern Charity Daleks, the proceeds from the photo-shoots went to Butterwick House Children’s Hospice. As the day wore on and the temperature rose, the Kaled mutants were starting to melt a bit, but they were steadfast in their fundraising activities. The Prof even bought a Dalek Bruce mug. Which has 60 rells on it. Needless to say, he couldn’t stop laughing…

Graeme Harper was there not only to promote his book, Calling the Shots, but also to be interviewed by BBC Tees’ DJ Bob Fischer, an ardent Doctor Who fan we first met at Dimensions last year. This “Audience With” session was highly entertaining; mind you, we knew it would be as we’d gone to see him, Nicola Bryant and Maurice Roëves at a showing of Caves of Androzani at the Quad in Derby for Oolon’s birthday last year. Mr Harper is a very friendly, considerate and generous man who can spin quite the tale and who kindly allowed himself to be dragged into an alley for an interview (coming soon, as they say, along with Bob’s interview). His experiences on Doctor Who were fascinating to listen to, seeing as he practically grew up, career-wise, on the show and so knew many of the Doctors and assistants even if he didn’t actually direct them. He also holds the distinction of being the only original series director to have directed Nu-Who.

The highlight of the day had to be the Baa-leks, though; knitted Daleks from Nana Val, being raffled to raise more money for Butterwick House. I had my heart set on Baa-lek Doreen, the shocking pink hussy, but the Prof did manage to win Baa-lek Custard for me (as some lucky blighter managed to get to Doreen before him). He even came with an adoption certificate, signed by Nana Val and Mr Harper. He’s a bit soppy for a Dalek; we have to give him cuddles every night (it says so on the certificate and we can’t argue with Graeme Harper).

So if you are in the vicinity of Stockton, please do pop in to visit Brian and Martin. If you’re there on Saturday 3rd September, there’s going to be a showing of the Cushing movies (yes, Martin says they’re not canon, either) along with a guest appearance by Terry Molloy, the artist formerly known as Davros

You can check 'em out now at SDCC at the Underground Toys booth (#3849). It looks a bit generic from the pictures we've seen, but it's hard to tell. Let us know if it's any good, classic Doctor companion figures have been a long time coming. Also keep your eyes peeled for the 2011 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive River Song with Pandorica Chair (also on BBC America’s booth #3629) if you make it along.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

This is a beautiful performance of Murray Gold’s 11th Doctor's theme, by Mark Fowler (UKpiano's Channel).
He explains that ...

"This arrangement is my own and learnt purely by ear. The performance, as with all my performances on Youtube, is played straight/live with no before or after editing whatsoever, the strings sound you hear is just dual voiced with piano for effect, but still played at same time as the actual grand piano voice, so there is no added parts to the performance.
I cant remember the last time I had so much fun with a piece or had so much enjoyment from learning a piece and practicing it..."